Why do these two code samples produce different outputs?

Question

Sample 1:

 class Animal {
     public static void saySomething() { System.out.print(\" Gurrr!\"); 
   }
 }
 class Cow extends Animal {
    public static void         


        

Answer 1

When you call saySomething() on an animal, the actual type of the animal doesn't count because saySomething() is static.

Animal cow = new Cow();
cow.saySomething(); 

is the same as

Animal.saySomething();

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A JLS example :

When a target reference is computed and then discarded because the invocation mode is static, the reference is not examined to see whether it is null:

class Test {
  static void mountain() {
      System.out.println("Monadnock");
  }
  static Test favorite(){
       System.out.print("Mount ");
       return null;
   }
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       favorite().mountain();
   }

}

which prints:
Mount Monadnock
Here favorite returns null, yet no NullPointerException is thrown.

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Resources :

• JLS - Is the Chosen Method Appropriate?

On the same topic :

• Java Static confusion